Book review: Stories without borders:the Berlin wall and the making of a global iconic event

Published a quarter of a century ago, Media Events: The Live Broadcasting of History (Dayan and Katz, 1992) is perhaps one of the most influential works in the history of media and communications studies. Since its original publication, the concept of media events has been dissected and debated by several scholars, who have praised Dayan and Katz for their emphasis on ‘outstanding’ episodes rather than on the ‘ordinary’ or ‘average’ (Hepp and Couldry, 2010: 2). Some of these authors have also pointed out the shortcomings of this seminal work, and have suggested alternative terminologies to understand those extraordinary occasions covered by – and often constructed in complicity with – the media, such as ‘media rituals’, ‘media spectacles’ or ‘popular media events’ (e.g. Cottle, 2006; Couldry, 2003; Hepp and Vogelgesang, 2003; Kellner, 2010). Part of the enduring allure of Media Events is evidenced by the fact that Dayan and Katz have at different times revisited their original ideas, in order to update them as well as to address some criticisms, as a recent special issue in this journal shows (Katz and Dayan, 2017; see also Dayan, 2008; Katz and Liebes, 2007).